Elon Musk Has Used Illegal Drugs, Worrying Leaders at Tesla and SpaceX
wsj.com
wsj.com
(The illegality element may only matter from a business standpoint for government contracts.)
I’ve never been a hater of “mainstream media”, but they are turning out to be ridiculous right now.
Just compare WSJ tabloid to FT.com now and the difference is huge.
WSJ is going full bore down the path of most other Murdoch News Corp media properties, less neutral news, more click generating emotional rage bait.
( Okay, technically WSJ is directly a Dow Jones & Company, Inc. asset - but Dow Jones is now just another American publishing firm owned by News Corp.)
Give it a few years and they'll have a page three girl.
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Musk is the owner and CEO of one of the most important defense contractors in the country. It is a matter of national strategic importance if he is spending his time coked out of his gourd or neck-deep in a k-hole.
If you really think Musk’s drug habit is that important, People.com and NYPost Page Six may be closer to your preference.
There’s a couple of wars, shipping crisis, antisemitism, airplanes grounded, an upcoming election, employment and inflation numbers that are of more consequence than the private behaviour of Musk.
Did we forget that Jared Kushner couldn’t get a security clearance because of his financial black hole?
And you’re blaming Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper for this? This isn’t Gawker, FYI.
A famous person with a drug problem. This is famously "good" news. Look at any other celebrity and the in depth coverage of their personal problems. Why should he be any different?
If the CEO of Boeing or Raytheon was acting this way, would we be acting differently?
To be clear, the WSJ article linked here states that people are worried he has a problem.
Using before going on stage for work is not recreational, it's a problem.
If it’s a problem, it’s a minor problem, not justifying the attention. Elon has a lot of major problems that this distracts from, and creates the suspicion of a media bias against him, which is harmful.
(Separately, regarding business and political leaders in particular) I’m not in favor of the “blackmail vulnerability” arguments in this discussion. Substance use should not be stigmatized.
In my opinion, drug testing should only required for certain roles (like driving or operating machinery). And it should only look for active intoxication.
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Congress carved out provisions allowing federal contract waivers for virtually every crime you can think of. It includes assault, rape, and murder.
Is it part of cancel culture to cancel things you don't like?
Seems to speak to the problem more than his use of psychedelics.
Steve Jobs used to go in front of Stanford business classes, sit at the front table cross-legged, call out a student at the front and ask "have you ever taken LSD?", and if they answered "no", he'd say "then you'll never be successful at business" and proceed to lecture on the benefits of LSD to creativity.
I highly doubt anyone serious gives a shit if Elon tries some molly.
Report goes on to say people around him are worried about his ongoing drug use, particularly Ketamine.
A Tesla director stepped down due to his erratic behavior.
He once took the stage at a large company meeting presumably high and slurring his words.
Board members suspected he was on drugs while tweeting about taking the company private. The tweet caused an SEC investigation.
So, a little more than a Steve Jobs rant about his LSD hippy days.
Cocaine is not, and usually the hallmark of someone with a problem.
I don't think anyone cares whether or not he do molly sometimes, but this is really something different. He is after all CEO for the only U.S. company now approved to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
If Elon even denies it (because lets be honest, everything in this story has multiple verification, is repeated from different sources and is consistent with Musk’s own behavior), it creates opportunity for blackmail or worse.
People are VERY easy to blackmail.
Again, if you deny or lie about it, you essentially self-blackmail.
Read the article:
>"Illegal drug use would likely be a violation of federal policies that could jeopardize SpaceX’s billions of dollars in government contracts. Musk is intrinsic to the value of his companies, potentially putting at risk around $1 trillion in assets held by investors, tens of thousands of jobs and big parts of the U.S. space program...In addition to violating federal contracts, any kind of illegal drug use would break company policies at both SpaceX and Tesla, and would raise questions about Musk’s executive role at the publicly traded Tesla, where the board has a duty to shareholders to oversee management.”
Elon is taking federal contractor funds, a very serious deal, and doing cocaine and more with it.
He’s a literal national security threat.
People get security clearances pulled over this.
He doesn't exactly hide this.
The greater issue is he's flaky, whimsical, and readily takes cues from rando's trending on twitter. Not the reliable rock steady rational actor one images national security should rest upon.
again, ANYONE else doesn’t pass security clearances over this.
They've entered in contracts with him, they've had the chance to fully read all that is public about Elon in advance, and now they've got the tiger by the tail.
I doubt a third party (Russia?) threatening to tell on Elon to the DoD about his cocaine | LSD | mushroom | et al. habits would do squat as far as blackmail goes, they very probably already know, if not they're kind of incompetent.
He's delivering private launch facilities and Elon having loose lips is a greater threat than Elon being threatened with being outed about drugs unless he discloses DoD "need to know" secrets he has access to.
Ultimately he has value to DoD and they have bank problem;
if you owe $100 to the bank, you have a problem, if you owe one billion to a bank, the bank has a problem
He's not ANYONE else.
( again, not a fan, not a devoted Elon hater - this is just the pragmatic assessment )
The moment Elon denies doing cocaine, he is then subject to blackmail. Everyone on the board knows he does hard drugs, so now he can be exploited.
It’s that simple.
If I know you’re lying, I can manipulate you.
Elon Musk publicly and falsely accused someone of being a pedophile and skated on it. Donald Trump publicly bragged about being able to sexually assault women, and it got him more votes than he lost. I guarantee you nothing will happen to anyone named on the Epstein list. People at this level of power can't effectively be blackmailed, because social (and most legal) consequences simply don't apply to them. Certainly not over something as banal as drug use.
This isn't the 1940s, everyone already assumes that every rich powerful asshole is doing cocaine every week off the naked back of a new kept boy they rented from Thailand with mafia money. No one cares.
It sounds like you have a security clearance and either really like the rules or feel really constricted by them and that's why you're so angry about this.
Also he aligned with the Saudis over the Twitter deal. They seem to be able to kill who they want with zero repercussions. He has a lot of kids.
Main Street logic and norms do not apply to the super rich.
Exactly like this:
> "Illegal drug use would likely be a violation of federal policies that could jeopardize SpaceX’s billions of dollars in government contracts. Musk is intrinsic to the value of his companies, potentially putting at risk around $1 trillion in assets held by investors, tens of thousands of jobs and big parts of the U.S. space program... In addition to violating federal contracts, any kind of illegal drug use would break company policies at both SpaceX and Tesla, and would raise questions about Musk’s executive role at the publicly traded Tesla, where the board has a duty to shareholders to oversee management.”
That's basically saying- "you have nice companies here... it would be a pity if they were taken from you or went bankrupt".
Elon Musk's drug behaviour (whatever it is) will not change. But people can stop talking about it, if people are happy with what Elon does for them.
The only place where it should remain outlawed is situations where it could lead to accidents like driving heavy machinery, etc.
There are MANY people who have done LSD, ecstacy and Mushrooms have gotten old and found it improved their lives, decision-making and perhaps intellect.
KETAMINE OTOH is newer and highly addictive. Some people can get delusional and unhinged on it especially if done often. Musk should absolutely limit the use of Ketamine to perhaps 1-2X/mo.
I have done interventions with people doing too much Ketamine so i speak from experience.
Cocaine is just dumb and pointless
It just goes to show, you can revolutionize electric cars and private spaceflight, build a successful business empire, and become the richest man in the world, and people will still claim that your drug use is destroying your life.
The people quoted in the article claim that his drug use may be causing erratic behavior on Twitter and elsewhere. Besides the fact that erratic behavior clearly doesn't require drug use (see Trump), even if we assume that Musk's personality is a result of his drug use, how about the fact that that same personality was the one that made all those concerned people rich in the first place. Or are only negative personality traits allowed to be attributed to drug use?
Unsuccessful person using drugs: "You're unsuccessful because of your drug use."
Successful person using drugs: "You're successful despite your drug use."
Personally, I have free access through work and I have, in the past, been a subscriber to the dead tree edition.